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* Git or Github
* Local communities of ruby, python users.
* Kernighan and Ritchie's "The C Programming Language." A keeper for life, and surprisingly readable and directed to the newbie. Also "The Pragmatic Programmer" by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas.* VirtualBox www.virtualbox.org / to make new VM setup and deployment easier we use Vagranthttp://vagrantup.com/
*Practice! No matter the learning material, nothing will really sink in unless you apply it in the wild (like a small project).
* It's still useful to learn a little something about configuring a webserver / database / etc.
* +1 to web-hosting as it gives the ability install one's own software on one's domain (which feels great) *and* easy access to shell. And when web-hosting feels like too much of a barrier to access, sites like jsfiddle where you can immediately start adding *and* sharing code is key. IMHO the initial appeal of Code Academy was that it removed all barriers to getting started. Getting a laptop's localhost set up is too daunting for a first step, I think.
* Video series on command line basics from Lullabot: http://drupalize.me/series/command-line-basics-series
*AMP (LAMP, WAMP, MAMP) stacks for an easy install of Apache, mySQL + perl/ python / php.
*A @rdio subscription. :) And a text editor with syntax highlighting.
